Chris and Morgan reflect on one year of FOSS & Crafts, as well as announcing... FOSS & Crafts Studios! Links: FOSS & Crafts Studios on Patreon (still also the right place to support Chris Lemmer-Webber's FOSS work) Thank you to our guests: Nick and LP , Zack , Kate and Frankie , Sebastian , Bassam , Tristan , Sumana , Mallory , Vicky , Steve , Elana and Katie , and Steel . 3: Textile production and a nostalgic past 28: FOSS Stitch w/ Elana Hashman and Katie McLaughlin 5: Milkytracker...
Jul 20, 2021
Steel Wagstaff joins us to talk about their work at Pressbooks , a FOSS based book publishing suite particularly focused on Open Educational Resources (OER), as well as talking about OER generally, open access, and education as a fundamental human right! Pressbooks ( git repos ) Pressbooks Directory Steel Wagstaff's website , Twitter account 5Rs of open content UN Sustainable development goals [Cape Town Declaration (September 2007)](https://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration + htt...
Jul 11, 2021
On this episode, Chris talks about being nonbinary trans-femme and Morgan talks about being demisexual (and briefly about both being pansexual) and how they have both navigated these experiences in their lives and relationship. Links: There are a lot of resources on the internet about being transgender and nonbinary, and opinions about most of them tend to run strong. That said, Transgender Map has good resources explaining many concerns for those who are transgender or nonbinary, are trying to ...
Jun 28, 2021
Any skillset has basic foundational elements or building blocks. In this recording of Chris and Morgan's talk at ÖzgürKon , we discuss the way that access to those basic elements is limited in modern society. This can be seen in any number of fields from actual building blocks increasingly being sold in sets to make specific toys as opposed to generic buckets of blocks that allow kids to develop their creativity to the way that access to the source code and hardware in our technology is increasi...
Jun 12, 2021
Elana Hashman (Python Software Foundation Fellow and open source hacker) and Katie McLaughlin (Python Software Foundation Fellow and crafter) join us to talk about F(L)OSS meets embroidery and cross stitching (FOSS stitching?) including a significant conversation about FLOSS vs embroidery floss. Much is also conversed about ih , a project started by Katie with contributions from Elana, a python project which helps generate embroidery patterns from images. Links: ih! ih presented at PyCon 2019: K...
May 23, 2021
Steve is back, talking with Chris about viewing social systems through the lens of game design. How do game mechanics, uncertainty, and narrative map onto governance, society, and citizen participation? Thanks to Kate and Ricky for participating in a pre-show discussion which generated many of the ideas explored in this episode. Links: The first F&C Nerdout episode on "Fuzzy and crisp systems" , in case you wanted to hear more of the Chris & Steve conversation dynamic F&C Episode 4: ...
May 06, 2021
Remember how we've been saying the entire run of this show "Morgan's hard at work at finishing her PhD dissertation?" Well guess what! She finally got it handed in and defended it... Morgan is now officially Dr. Morgan Lemmer-Webber! (She still has to wrap up a few edits but hey it's official now!) Morgan walks us through her experiences of the graduate school process, from applying (and re-applying) to schools, to a masters program, to a PhD program, and the many fun steps, bumps, and adventure...
Apr 23, 2021
What story does an institution tell about itself? To whom does a governance structure and its leadership serve? To what degree are leaders within a governing institution subject or exempt to the rules of the governed? We use this framework to discuss the unexpected announcement of Richard Stallman's re-appointment to the FSF board, by the FSF board. Content warning: depression and sexual harassment are both mentioned in this episode. Links: Founder's Syndrome (Wikipedia article) Statement on the...
Mar 28, 2021
Morgan returns from handing in her dissertation! Very topically, Morgan and Chris talk about organizational systems which can help you stay on track... even when you're working from home or trying to finish your PhD during a global pandemic. Links: The Hipster PDA , including the original semi-satirical announcement post . Org Mode , the world's greatest organizational and outliner system (or so claims Chris), if you're an Emacs user anyway (honestly, Org Mode is a great reason to pick up Emacs)...
Mar 12, 2021
Morgan is in the final crunch of finishing her dissertation draft, so Chris's brother Steve Webber joins us for a special "nerdout": analyzing the dual nature of fuzzy vs crisp systems! From physics to biology, from programming languages to human languages, the duality of fuzzy and crisp is everpresent. Yes, this really is what Chris and Steve sound like whenever they get together... Links: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (but this version looks better on the web ) and the 1980...
Feb 13, 2021
There's all sorts of reasons to pursue historical crafting techniques: for the experience of recreating them or learning new techniques, for education, or for entertainment and immersion. Morgan and Chris explore these paths under the terms "experiential historical crafts", "experimental archaeology", and "historical reenactment". What is important, useful, and fun about each of these? What pitfalls might we want to avoid? What can be gained by what we might find, how might we bring more people ...
Jan 29, 2021
We're joined by Vicky Steeves , a hyper-talented librarian specializing in data management, open and reproducible research, and the overlap between FOSS, free culture, and library sciences! We dive into all of that... plus a bit of crafting... and even... what's this? A discussion of what the FOSS world can learn from the world of game modding (and vice versa)! Links: ISAGE (Investigating & Archiving the Scholarly Git Experience) and, to be a bit meta, ISAGE's own data as open and reproducib...
Jan 18, 2021
Chris and Morgan, driving in the Covid-19 pandemic, reflect on lessons of hygiene and a separation of concerns from the past (seen through the retroactively surprising struggle for handwashing acceptance) while analyzing how to bring safety to today's computing security pandemic via object capability discipline. As said in the episode, there's a lot of research and evidence for the object capability security approach! Please do scour the links below (with significant commentary attached). Links:...
Jan 03, 2021
With computing technology becoming integrated with every aspect of our lives, many issues are simultaneously human rights issues and technical issues. Thus, how are organizations concerned with human rights and social justice engaging with technological authorship and policy-making? Mallory Knodel , presently Chief Technology Officer for the Center for Democracy and Technology , explains her work as a Public Interest Technologist. Mallory is also heavily engaged in a wide number of technical sta...
Dec 17, 2020
We're joined by Sumana Harihareswara , a FOSS advocate yes, but also a person of so many other talents! We talk about sketching, standup comedy, and maintainership for the long life of free software projects. (Did you know you can hire Sumana to help on your FOSS project maintainership btw? Sumana runs Changeset Consulting !) We also talk about representation in the FOSS community within the arts (especially narrative arts), and about learning new skills within "no big deal" contexts. Links: Cha...
Dec 06, 2020
We're joined by our friend Tristan to talk about gardening experiences, from newbies (us) to the wise (Tristan and others who are not us). We (Morgan and Chris) have just started seriously gardening this year, and have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. And it turns out that people who have been doing it for years (such as Tristan) still have a lot of successes but also a lot of failures. But those can be fun too! Links: Stocking Up (book on preserving) No dig sheet mulching...
Nov 28, 2020
Bassam Kurdali ( Fediverse , Twitter ) talks about using Blender (a free and open source software suite for making 3d artwork) for open movie projects such as Elephants Dream (the world's first open movie project, which Bassam directed!) and Wires for Empathy , as well as use in teaching it to college students studying animation. Links: Blender Urchin studios Chicken Chair (we need a better link for this... check back later!) Elephants Dream Wires for Empathy (aka "Tube") OpenToonz Boats Animato...
Nov 12, 2020
Morgan and Chris talk about the Scribble document authoring format, with Morgan talking about authoring her dissertation in it and Chris talking about writing an OpenDocument Format (sometimes shortened to "ODF" or "ODT") exporter. (That code is now a merge request which will hopefully become part of Scribble itself!) Links: The Digital Humanities Workshops episode... this is kind of a continuation of those topics. Racket and Scribble Racket 7.4 release notes , where Morgan is mentioned as a con...
Nov 06, 2020
Morgan and Chris discuss the Digital Humanities workshops they ran introducing non-programmers to Racket and Scribble . Links: The flier (post-LibrePlanet 2018 edition) Course material Building a Snowman with Racket How to Use Scribble to Write your Academic Papers: A Reference Tutorial...
Oct 31, 2020
This week we are joined by Sebastian Lasse , author of the Redaktor ActivityPub powered CMS, and co-host of both ActivityPub Conference 2020 and ActivityPub Conference 2019 along with Morgan. Lots of retrospective, especially on the difference between APConf as an online conference in 2020 vs an in person conference in 2019. Links: ActivityPub Conference 2020 ActivityPub Conference videos The Running a FOSS virtual conference meta-talk/panel ActivityPub FOSShost "Some singing" Redaktor The Hacka...
Oct 15, 2020
On this episode of FOSS and Crafts Theatre, we continue the What Goblins Saga. The What Goblins saga continues as the characters continue to learn about themselves and their ever-changing environment. If you haven't listened to Chapter 1 , maybe stop reading now to avoid spoilers from that episode! Having discovered that they are are sapient beings emergent from a networked video game, and having accidentally stumbled into administrative powers, the What Goblins discover the consequences of usin...
Oct 08, 2020
Chris and Morgan discuss an ethical framework Chris has been workshopping for the last few years, "An Ethics of Agency", with the foundation of maximizing agency "for you, for me, for everyone" and minimizing subjection. CW: Note that Chris talks about an incident involving them experiencing suicidal depression at one point. Links: Other philosophical systems mentioned: Utilitarianism Kantianism Ethics of Care Peter Singer 's book Animal Liberation , and the argument for Equal consideration of i...
Oct 01, 2020
On this episode of FOSS and Crafts Theatre, we begin exploring "The What Goblins Saga". While the claim of "our goblins are different" is hardly new, these goblins seem to stand apart more than most... even their fellow goblins seem to think so. What is the nature of goblins, and what about The What Goblins in particular? Through little planning or foresight, our motley crew is about to find more answers than they expected... which only opens up more questions, of course... Links: FOSS & Cra...
Sep 24, 2020
What is this Spritely project that's taken up most of Chris's time for the last several years? Something about advancing distributed/decentralized social networks, but what does that mean? Chris and Morgan talk about it while they drive to the bank! Links: Spritely Spritely Goblins ( repo ), the distributed programming language environment The distributed storage demos: Magenc , Crystal , and Golem . Currently being explored as the Datashards project. Where's the website? Not up at the time of e...
Sep 10, 2020
We are extremely excited to have on our first FOSS & Crafts guest: Stefano Zacchiroli ! (Also known on some corners of the FOSS world as just "zack".) Stefano has a long history of FOSS advocacy, most famously for his role in Debian where he served three well-regarded terms as Debian Project Leader. These days zack works on Software Heritage , an archival institution for software source code. We talk about how Software Heritage plays a role in common with other GLAM institutions (which stand...
Sep 03, 2020
Leaving off from part 1 , the office demons of Styx, Hexia, and Gummy Bear (or is it Gerumphy or perhaps Gzeumphi Behr?) track down and confront the mysterious lampmorel creature directly. What dangers await them? And just what secrets are the corporate overlords of Demonstrative Industries and Plentimint Industries both keeping (perhaps even from each other)? Find out in this thrilling conclusion!
Aug 27, 2020
On the first ever episode of FOSS and Crafts Theatre (a new subshow of FOSS and Crafts), Chris and Morgan are joined by veteran role playing game players Nick and LP to bring everyone a story of three demonic employees of the international conglomerate, Demonstrative Industries. Something has escaped from the Demonic Z.O.O.O.O. to the human realm, and its up to our demon heroes to clean up the mess before anyone finds out. Can they succeed in their mission and keep their corporate overlords plea...
Aug 20, 2020
Chris's journey of making the intro music is used as a backdrop to explore how to make music in Milkytracker , a FOSS program for making tracker music, as well as to explore a bit of sound theory, what chiptunes and tracker music are, and even a bit of exploring what it's like to learn something new even when you aren't necessarily very good yet. Links: Milkytracker sfxr drpetter's sound theory and synthesis page musagi and the musagi tutorial The Impulse Project The Commodore 64 computer and it...
Aug 13, 2020
Morgan and Chris look at the domains of FOSS and crafts from the lens of the Eight Kinds of Fun , traditionally used to analyze game design. What kinds of ways do different people enjoy participating in creative activities? How can examining those help us understand how to grow our communities to accomodate different participants with different styles of interests? Links: MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research An article about the Eight Kinds of Fun, oriented at RPG GMs Ludology...
Aug 06, 2020
These days textile production is mostly automated aside from some niche markets and craft production. Craft production of textiles today taps into a vision of a nostalgic past, often evoking memories of a time the audience member wasn't there for. It turns out this potent imagery has been used not just for inspiring hobbyist crafters everywhere to pull out the drop spindle and knitting needles, but also by political participants going back all the way to (at least) Ancient Rome to try to steer a...
Jul 30, 2020
